Stockton powers into the playoffs

STOCKTON - The Thunder lost a few players but found its power play on the way to clinching a playoff berth.

Scott Linesburgh

STOCKTON - The Thunder lost a few players but found its power play on the way to clinching a playoff berth.

Playing with seven forwards and 14 total skaters, Stockton scored all of its goals on the power play and got another strong performance from goaltender Tyler Bunz to beat the Ontario Reign 4-1 on Sunday in front of a crowd of 5,796 at Stockton Arena.

The Thunder has qualified for the postseason for seven consecutive seasons, failing to do so only in the inaugural season of 2005-06.

Stockton (29-22-9, 67 points) usually has 10 forwards and six defensemen on the active roster. but forward Eric Hunter was called up to Oklahoma City of the American Hockey League on Saturday and team captain Garet Hunt was suspended for at least one game for a hit from behind on Ontario's Cameron Burt on Friday.

"There was a lot of mixing and matching, that's for sure. But the great thing about the guys is that they embraced it," Thunder coach Matt Thomas said. "They had a lot of fun. It think it was important for our 'D' to be good today, because that's where we were healthy and had numbers. And Bunz really came through for us."

The defensemen came through playing in front of Roy in their own zone. Three blue liners, - Brandon Davidson, Ryan Constant and Tony DeHart - had goals as Stockton scored on four of six power plays.

"It was a pretty amazing effort by a lot of the guys. We're missing some key guys," Bunz said. "It was just a good team effort."

Davidson, who has eight points in seven games since joining the Thunder, gave his team a 1-0 lead 17 minutes, 27 seconds into the game after taking a pass from Matt Reber on a slow-developing play. Constant scored in the second, and Reber and DeHart had goals in the third.

Davidson and Reber each had a goal and an assist, and forward Max Boisclair had three assists.

"You always hope that your power play can get hot at the right times, and when you are down in numbers and offensive-minded players sometimes your power play has to really kink it into high gear," Thomas said. "Hopefully, this is something that gives up confidence going forward."

Bunz (13-13-4) had 27 saves and kept the Reign (38-14-5, 81) out of the net until Kyle Kraemer scored with 9:12 remaining in the game.

If the playoffs began today, the Thunder would be the fourth seed in the ECHL's National Conference and have home ice in the first round.

"It's nice to secure it and get it behind you, but we, obviously, have loftier goals for ourselves," Thomas said. "We want to stay in a home ice spot. We've got a lot to still fight for."